Communicate:
Start a Block Roster with addresses, names, phone and email.
Start a quarterly newsletter and invite a young person to distribute
make an effort to be out and about in the street more often
Start a Google Group or web page for your Block (See an example here: Greater Seabright Community Project)
Send out a Survey to see what people’s interests are (click here to see survey)
Events/Projects:
Invite a solar installation expert to a block meeting. The idea is that people could install solar panels on their homes as a neighborhood project.
Have a harvest share in someone’s front yard
Start a “Tomato Plant in Front Yard Project” as a visual sign of community unity
skill sharing event: garden installation, food preserving, cooking backyard harvests
Showing videos of other towns that are having success in neighborhood building.
Combine cause and community by having an annual home block garage sale to raise money for a nonprofit group.
Sponsor a holiday celebration
Start a regular “Mom’s night out” or Mom’s walking group
Start a progressive dinner tradition on your block. Ask each home to serve a dish, and go house hopping until you’re contentedly full.
Host movie nights, using a garage door as the movie screen. Alternate which home gets to pick the rental, and don’t forget the popcorn.
Work with the city to convert old railroad tracks or easements into multi-use trails. Then start an urban forest. Let neighbors plant their own trees, and revisit the site to watch your work grow.
Establish a community garden, converting neglected public space, however small, into a pocket garden with a bench or two. Digging in the dirt together creates plenty of opportunity for bonding, not to mention some tasty fruits, veggies, and herbs.
Make your own playground. Take advantage of a cul-de-sac by devising a play area with a tree swing, basketball court, and plenty of room for riding bikes and skating. (Erect a yellow warning sign to let visiting vehicles know that kids are at play.)
Inviting Front and Back Yards:
Have chickens in your front yard. Adults and children will naturally gather.
Consider building a gate in fences between backyards to foster camaraderie and use for emergencies.
Build a firepit in front of your house. On cooler nights, throw down some beach blankets, and watch the kids play. Or just settle down out front in some folding chairs on a Friday or weekend afternoon, and invite the neighbors to join you.
Hang a swing from your porch to get you out front and socializing.
Help Each Other:
Offer to take a person in need shopping with you
Create a new kind of Neighborhood Watch: Build a “care force” that helps out with dinners and errands when neighbors need a hand, and/or host an emergency preparedness night in which you get organized and learn about your neighbors’ special skills (CPR training, etc.).
Schedule an annual “barn raising,” at which a volunteer work crew helps neighbors with household projects, from fixing the pipes to mending a fence.
Share house keys with your next-door neighbors, and know whom to call in case of an emergency.
Encourage a word-of-mouth community network so kids know there’s always someone watching over them.